Priceless....

Wow! Is all I have to say about my last few days in Cambodia. Honestly, I was a little worried about Cambodia, from what I have seen about people getting mugged and to stay in after dark had me a little scared, especially after traveling Thailand. Siem Reap has been great thus far. The people, food, and experiences have been very memorable thus far.

After arriving to the guest house and meeting up with Josh and Louie, Louie went to work on his bus trip from Phonm Pehn to Siem Reap and met a local tuk tuk driver named Lam. Lam picked us up from the guest house and took us around the town and has been our driver and translator for the last few days. Everyone seems to know him around the town and having a local driver that knows the in’s and outs of a city that you can trust makes experiencing the city priceless.

Yesterday we visited the Angkor wat, one of many. It was amazing and one of those things that pictures will not do justice. The temples were HUGE and the ability to climb and crawl throughout makes it fun. Some of the steps are very steep and small, making it difficult to climb up and down. After the temples, we headed to Lam’s home town in the countryside and on the way, we saw a truck ¾ in a water ditch and hundreds of people gathering around to watch them try to pull it out. It was pretty insane and after an hour or so, they still did not get it out of the water. From there, we headed to his brother in-laws house who is a coach for boxers (which they consider muay thai boxers). We got to watch some of the fighters train and let me just say it was not your normal boxing gym. They had a few large punching bags setup, a huge tire for them to warm up on by jumping on it, cement blocks with a wooden bar that was used for weights, and no ring, just about of dirt. It was pretty insane to watch them train with that type of equipment and all and I am pretty sure they can whoop all of our asses. After that he took is to his parents place where is twins were, we got to meet his parents and kids, which was nice of him.

Today was spent at another set of temples and tomorrow we will head to the ones known as the Tomb Raider temple, since Tomb Raider was shot there which is the famous one with the trees overgrowing the temples. At the last temple we went to catch sunset, we got to chat with Buddhist monks as they like to practice their English with foreigners. We got to understand some of the monks traditions firsthand. The evening was spent with a bunch of locals at a small party that Lam’s nephew was throwing. It was basically just a bunch of guys (mostly tuk-tuk drivers) getting together to share food and drinks at a house in the countryside. The road to get there was a very bumpy dirt road but after missing a few turns we finally made it. On the way back to the guesthouse, we actually all had to get out and push for a little bit as the sand was too soft for the tuk-tuk. We all had a great time and actually enjoyed the rice, little fish that are caught from the water next to the rice paddies, and duck soup that was served at the party. The night was very memorable and good times was shared with many local Cambodians, these kind of events sometimes make more of an impression on you the visiting one of the wonders of the worlds! Being able to able to indulge yourself with locals, makes the traveling experience all that much memorable.